Flip on the Cubs game and pass the smokes.
What’s her secret?
April 24, 2006
By TONY SPILDE Bismarck Tribune
By TONY SPILDE Bismarck Tribune
You asked where Liz was, and in a place full of Elizabeths, Marthas and Ruths, they knew who you meant and said she was probably in the back, having a smoke. Liz Baudien smoked gracefully.
She held the cigarette as if it were a sixth finger on her right hand, waving it here and there without dropping an ash, the trail of smoke almost spelling out the answers to your questions.
You asked who her favorite president was. The smoke spelled “Roosevelt.”
Which one?
She smiled.
You asked what year she was born. The smoke spelled “1900.”
Liz Baudien was born Elizabeth Schoonover on April 10, 1900, in Breckenridge, Minn. She spent the majority of her life at Fort Rice and Mandan, though, and now lives at Elm Crest Manor in New Salem, where she has become somewhat of a celebrity.
“She’s amazing,”said Hulda Albers, 93, also a resident at Elm Crest. “Liz is really something. She’s an inspiration.”
Baudien, like most people, has lived a life off the radar, out of the public eye. Good deeds and missteps weren’t lauded or criticized. She worked hard and raised eight children, who raised 28 more. Her gifts to the world were modesty and kindness, commodities of increasing rarity. That 62 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great grandchildren have inherited those traits is no small contribution.
“It’s unbelievable to me how good she is,” 85-year-old Hap Montgomery, Baudien’s son, said Sunday.
Montgomery was one of three children Baudien had with her first husband, Halley Montgomery. Montgomery left when the children were young, and in the early 1920s, Liz married Mike Baudien. He was a mail carrier, and they also farmed near Fort Rice. They had five children together.
“Mike Baudien was a dad to me,” Montgomery said. “We had a good life.”
Mike Baudien died in 1956, and Liz didn’t remarry. She just kept on going, taking life a day, a month and, eventually, five more decades at a time.
“I like every day,” Baudien said Sunday, smoking in the back room at Elm Crest. “I like every month and every year. It’s spring, and everyone’s happy in spring.”
Is that the secret to her longevity, liking every day and making the most of it?
“I don’t know. People always ask me that stuff,” she said. “Ijust know that Ilike it here. North Dakota is the greatest state. The people (at Elm Crest) couldn’t treat me better. Is there a baseball game on? If there is, let’s watch it. I like watching ’em play, it makes me feel young. Maybe that’s the secret you want:Stay young.”
She exhaled smoke through a wry smile.
Then you thought of Albers. She plays drums in an in-house band. Just learned how.
“I’m 93 and thought it was time to try something new,” Albers said.
She could have passed for 73, easily.
Stay young. Hmm, could be something to that.
Flip on the Cubs game and pass the smokes.
Read
Read
106-year-old North Dakota woman enjoys each day
April 24, 2006
Associated Press
NEW SALEM, N.D. – Liz Baudien doesn’t know the secret to living more than a century, but she does know she has enjoyed her 106 years.
Associated Press
NEW SALEM, N.D. – Liz Baudien doesn’t know the secret to living more than a century, but she does know she has enjoyed her 106 years.
“I like every day,” Baudien said Sunday, smoking in the back room at Elm Crest Manor, where she lives. “I like every month and every year. It’s spring, and everyone’s happy in spring.”
At Elm Crest, Baudien has become somewhat of a celebrity.
“She’s amazing,” said Hulda Albers, 93, another resident. “Liz is really something. She’s an inspiration.”
Baudien was born Elizabeth Schoonover on April 10, 1900, in Breckenridge, Minn. She spent the majority of her life at Fort Rice and Mandan, and now lives in New Salem.
She raised eight children, who raised 28 of their own. She has 62 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great grandchildren.
“It’s unbelievable to me how good she is,” said Hap Montgomery, 85, Baudien’s son.
Montgomery was one of three children Baudien had with her first husband, Halley Montgomery. Montgomery left when the children were young, and in the early 1920s, Liz married Mike Baudien. He died in 1956, and Liz Baudien did not remarry.
Baudien said people always ask the secret to her longevity.
“I just know that I like it here. North Dakota is the greatest state,” she said. “The people (at Elm Crest) couldn’t treat me better.
“Is there a baseball game on? If there is, let’s watch it,” she said. “I like watching them play; it makes me feel young. Maybe that’s the secret you want: Stay young.”
